iPhone Moms…and their iPhone kids!

By Sarah Klein

I was not the type of child to be trusted with expensive things. I lost jewelry, scratched glass tables, and pushed too many buttons on the family TV. When we walked into a store, I was instructed to keep my hands behind my back, in fear of the strict "you break it, you buy it" rule.

So imagine how hard it was for me to watch when, a week or so ago, I saw a mother place her precious iPhone into the mittened hands of a toddler on the New York City subway. Didn't she know the iPhone was sure to be left behind on the subway car, or worse still, dropped on the tracks?

But apparently, that's a risk she and many other moms and dads are willing to take. Because, as a recent Slate article revealed, the iPhone has become the "ultimate kid-pacification device."

Even though I'm not yet a mom, I can still empathize with a parent's desire for a little peace and quiet.  Although the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests strictly limiting screen time for young children, there is no denying that television, movies, and even video games can, at the right time and place, be the perfect pacifier.

Perhaps then, it shouldn't come as a surprise that parents are now using smartphones, and particularly the iPhone, for the same purpose.

Recent studies have found that moms represent nearly 30% of all iPhone users.  Similar to the soccer mom of the 90s, the "iPhone Mom" has begun to attract the attention of advertisers, who value the influence and spending power of this blossoming tech-savvy demographic.

In October, mobile media company Greystripe dove deeper into the behavior of iPhone Moms and found that 59% also let their kids play with their phone. And these are often very young children. iPhone Moms have children of all ages but 29% have children aged 4 and under.

Over 40% of iPhone Moms even download apps specifically for their children to use, with the majority of those apps being games.

Ideally, more parents would be choosing educational apps to keep their little ones occupied, or at least interact with their child instead of simply handing the phone over as a toy. But for now, the latest technological babysitter makes sense – as long as, like mittens on a string, we devise a way to make sure we get the phone back!